Yesterday's Nintendo Direct kicked off with a large section devoted to the upcoming Pokémon Ultra Sun and Pokémon Ultra Moon, giving fans of the series a taste of what's in store when the titles arrive on November 17th.

It was revealed that the mysterious Pokémon shown on the packages of Pokémon Ultra Sun and Pokémon Ultra Moon are known as Necrozma:

After taking over the Legendary Pokémon Solgaleo in Pokémon Ultra Sun or the Legendary Pokémon Lunala in Pokémon Ultra Moon, Necrozma becomes Dusk Mane Necrozma or Dawn Wings Necrozma! Dusk Mane Necrozma can use Solgaleo’s signature move Sunsteel Strike and Dawn Wings Necrozma can use Lunala’s signature move Moongeist Beam. Alongside these new forms of Necrozma, two new Ultra Beasts, UB Assembly and UB Burst, were also shown.

That's not all!

The special early purchase gift Rockruff that can evolve into the new Dusk Form Lycanroc will know different moves depending on which version of the game you buy. In Pokémon Ultra Sun, it will know the move Fire Fang, while in Pokémon Ultra Moon, it will know the move Thunder Fang. The special Rockruff will be distributed holding a Focus Band and will also know the move Happy Hour which will allow you to receive twice as much prize money after battle. An exclusive Z-Move for Lycanroc was also revealed—Splintered Stormshards. This new Rock-type Z-Move can remove various effects from a terrain, and can be used by having a Lycanroc learn the move Stone Edge and then having it hold the special Z-Crystal Lycanium Z. All three Lycanroc, Midday Form, Midnight Form and Dusk Form, can use Splintered Stormshards.

Nintendo also made the point of reminding fans that more Pokémon goodness is coming to the 3DS Virtual Console this year, and that truly dedicated fans can get a special Celebi as a reward:

On 22 September, the Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console titles Pokémon Gold Version and Pokémon Silver Version will be available to purchase worldwide on Nintendo eShop. In addition, in Europe, limited amounts of boxed versions of Pokémon Gold Version and Pokémon Silver Version, with a digital download code for the games inside, will also be available to purchase from selected retailers in-store and online.

Fans who purchase either a boxed or Nintendo eShop copy of Pokémon Gold Version or Pokémon Silver Version before 21 September 2018 will receive a special code which will grant them the Mythical Pokémon Celebi in the Pokémon Sun, Pokémon Moon, Pokémon Ultra Sun or Pokémon Ultra Moon video games.

Damien has over a decade of professional writing experience under his belt, as well as a repulsively hairy belly. Rumours that he turned down a role in The Hobbit to work on Nintendo Life are, to the best of our knowledge, completely and utterly unfounded.

Yummy. Gold and Silver bonus!Also, once again Italian Youtuber Cydonia's predictions are once again confirmed: the new legendaries are actually new forms of Necrozma. Ugh. Can't wait to see him boasting about "theory confirmed".

Would've been nice if we get more Pokemon than what was revealed so far. More UBs, maybe new megas, Oricorio forms, or even Alolan forms. They made an effort to add a new Lycanroc form and 2 more UBs so I'm hoping there's still more aside from that. Will still buy the game though despite what other people say about Sun and Moon being bad. Been a Pokemon fan ever since I was a kid and I still enjoy playing them.

It's the announcement of new UBs that's the most significant here, this marks the first time that completely new species of Pokemon have been introduced in a mid gen game. Not a form change, not a Mega, not anything else, a completely new, never before seen species of Pokemon that will have its own National Dex number. This is a huge game changer for the series, if we can get new Pokemon added in literally any game instead of just having to wait for a new generation that could really make games like third versions and remakes a little more interesting.

The question is though, how many new Pokemon will be introduced? Will it just be UBs or will there be new regular Pokemon? How many Pokemon will be added? I'm not sure if it will be much this time, probably just a few more UBs and maybe another event legendary, but still, this is one of the most exciting things a third version has ever done. I can't believe I'm saying that about USUM.

They still havn't really told us what's in the games. Couple new legendaries, yawn. I'm starting to think they're being deliberately secretive with these games cause they are just a lazy cash grab with not much changed from sun/moon.

I hope the laziness of Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon is due to the development team having moved onto Pokémon Switch. If anything, I suspect that The Pokémon Company is making this deliberately bland so that they can blow us all away a year from now.

GF needs to fix their game. Fes Plaza was crap--we need the P.S.S. or a revision of it. If anything, put Fes Plaza on the pelago. Oh, and fix that "special Pokemon banned" filter--UB's, Tapu's, and Mythical's seem a little more special than a Battle Bond Greninja. Maybe they could throw in a way to skip the Z-move "movie" or just have a mode that blocks it all together?

And I guess, more battle modes...or give us triples, rotation, and completely new battle styles.

people complain about garbodor, klefki, vanilluxe and others...
but no one says a thing about those Fugly ultra beasts?
I mean those two new UB monsters wouldn't look out of place in a yu gi oh card. ._______.

OH yeah! they bother spoiling the new games in trailers, but won't bother explaining whats new in this cash grab?
.______.
yeah I better don't get my hopes up with pokemon switch.
Gamefreak are bad ._.

I'm tentatively excited. Yesterday's news was better than the almost non-existent trickle over the past few months, but even with the new reveals (I like UB Assembly), I still haven't seen anything that'll make me want to pick one of these up on day 1.

Still looks underwhelming, but a large part of that is from Sun and Moon themselves being disappointing. A revision on them likewise is going to be more of the same, even with the added content, and more Sun and Moon is just not what I want.

@H1B1Esquire
I'm not sure what did you mean about that GTS part. If you could rephrase...

If double battles lag so much, then I doubt tripple/rotation will reapear soon.
There won't new revolutionizing battle style. It's the same game as in 2016. And I think it is still pretty much the same engine as in 2013.

Before they even start to think of adding cool stuff, they need more computing power and perhaps new/tweaked engine first. Basically, a new generation.

Ultra Sun and Moon just seem like more of the same. The new ultra beasts and clothing options don't hold any appeal to me. If they had brought back Kanto, it would've been a day one purchase for me. I'm just feeling burnt out on new Pokémon right now. I'll just stick with Gold. It's time for me to go back to Kanto in some form.

When you look for a trade or battle, there's a list of people and a message informing you of what they're doing, such as, "on GTS", "in a battle", Wonder Trading" and it's silly to even show them on your list, because they most likely won't get your request.

I don't notice too much lag during doubles, but I'm usually playing BR. I wouldn't even mind custom battles, where you could choose your own restrictions, such as, only allowing pre-evo's, no held items, only mono-type, single-Pokemon battles (using one of your six and choosing the best option for countering your opponent), mixing-and-matching rule sets over the limited "set all to 50", "Special Pokemon banned" (which is still in serious need of repair), etc,.

I guess Switch may bring one or some of these things, but I'd like to hope an update patch could bring these things to US/UM.

@H1B1Esquire On a new 3ds double battles still run about 20 fps and it slows down while the AI is choosing their attacks. On an old 3ds double battles are virtually unplayable. It's a lag fest there. They really pushed too hard on the graphics cause the new 3ds can barely run double battles.